Yes, the United States was great, but its days as the world's dominating economic power are coming to an end...Oh, I'm sorry, I was supposed to comment on what? aerospace? Yes, America went to the moon, and launched the Hubble space telescope, and put a rover on Mars. Yes, all great achievements, but the Space shuttle never really captured many imaginations because it only went up to a maximum of 600 miles above earth, (less than the distance from Calgary to Winnipeg), hardly Buck Rogers in the 21st century space travel stuff, but yes it was a fantastic piece of re-usable space technology that, in the end, really wasn't that safe.